Kiffin changing a losing culture

OAKLAND

If you feel like being critical, go after Raiders coach Lane Kiffin. Roast him pretty good.

In a close game against the Super Bowl-champ Colts, he allowed untested rookie quarterback JaMarcus Russell to play three series in the third quarter. In the context of trying to win a game, that was an unforgivable mistake. Russell, who may some day be a big deal, was no big deal on this particular day.

Under his leadership, the Raiders went punt, punt, punt. Which means Kiffin gave away -- squandered -- the three Russell possessions. You could make a case the Raiders lost because of Kiffin and his infatuation with the kid quarterback.

Starting quarterback Josh McCown was the player who suffered most because of Kiffin's generosity to Russell. He had led the Raiders on a 20-play touchdown drive, a thing of beauty, that got the Raiders right back into the game. And then he ended up sitting while Russell diddled around.

It was the star of a Broadway drama taking off a few scenes while his understudy got the feel of the big time. It's funny, though. McCown didn't seem angry or bitter. He knows the deal on the Raiders, or as he said, "That's the situation. There's not much I can do about it."

McCown had more to say. McCown is one of the engaging talkers in sports -- he's a better talker than he is a quarterback. He said it would have been better to sit out those three series elsewhere.

"Arizona is a little warmer. You fight through the weather (in Oakland). You stay on the (stationary) bike. You try to stay warm. It's almost like a preseason mind-set waiting to get out there. I told (offensive coordinator) Greg Knapp, 'It's a rare opportunity to be the starter and the closer.' "

And he did come back later and led the team to a touchdown and a temporary lead against the Colts -- the crowd went nuts. And you had to think, if he had been in for those three crummy Russell series, the Raiders might have scored more points, might even have won.

"As tough as it was for me, it's best for the team," McCown said, whether or not he meant it, whether or not it was good for the team.

But let's say Russell actually had played well, should Kiffin have left the rookie in?

"If you draft a guy to be the future," McCown said, "and he starts acting like the future you leave him in there."

Except Russell didn't act one bit like the future. Right now, McCown is a better quarterback than Russell. I ask you this: Is Kiffin a bum for taking McCown out?

No way. Let's be clear about this. Russell has more potential than McCown -- football people call this "upside" -- and he needs to play for the sake of the franchise and for the sake of the future.

McCown, who soon will be relegated to the past, understands that. He lives with it. Kiffin deserves praise for finding a way to play the rookie and for almost winning the game -- it's not like the Raiders are fighting for a playoff spot and couldn't risk a rookie's mistakes.

In spite of everything, the Raiders were at the Colts' 16 with a good chance to tie the game late in the fourth quarter. On fourth down, McCown threw a pass to Jerry Porter that got knocked away. Kiffin swore Porter was interfered with -- he's supposed to gripe about stuff like that.

The almost-tie was quite an achievement, although Kiffin would disagree. He is an interesting case. He seemed grumpy after the game. His team had played well but it lost and no coach worth anything accepts losing with a smile. When one reporter mentioned his team had gone "toe to toe" with Indianapolis, Kiffin looked disgusted, almost offended. "Who cares?" he snapped.

Although I am not as hard on Kiffin as Kiffin is on Kiffin, I understand where he was coming from. A team that accepts losing, even a so-called "good" loss, is a team that accepts losing. In football, losing is the same as original sin. The Raiders need to finish teams, Kiffin said. He was talking about developing the killer instinct.

Kiffin needs to lighten up. Last season, the Raiders were a bunch of losers. They were losers who also were quitters. And they were boring. As football teams go, they were reprehensible. Kiffin has begun to change the culture on the Raiders, and no one changes the culture in just one season. Even Bill Walsh needed a few years to change the 49ers' losing culture.

So, sure, looked at a certain way it's bad the Raiders lost. But looked at another way, they played well and they played to the end and they gave their rookie quarterback a chance, and all things considered, they are a team with a future. If you don't find these modest improvements heartening, you are hard to please.

You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at 521-5486 or lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.